By the end of 2020 there were more than 2.66 million Australian homes and businesses with solar rooftops. Victoria accounts for 18.5 per cent of Australia’s installed rooftop solar.
Installing solar has financial benefits
Many businesses want to know if their bill savings will be big enough to justify a solar electricity system.
The clearest answer to this can be found by working out the payback time of a proposed system, which is how long it takes for electricity bill savings to cover the installed system cost, and the annual bill saving, which shows the ongoing financial benefit after the payback period has been reached.
DEECA have a Solar Calculator on the Victorian Energy Compare website.
Today’s grid-connected systems should pay for themselves between seven and nine years in Victoria even without the solar panel rebate, depending on factors such as location, energy retail tariffs and a business’s electricity consumption patterns.
Quality solar panels last at least 25 years, so that initial investment should repay several times over compared with the cost of buying electricity from the grid.
Each system installed helps the environment
Many people are focused on the environmental benefits when choosing to install a solar system. Although solar systems still have an environmental impact through the resources required to produce them, such as lithium used in batteries, they create far less of an environmental impact than electricity generated by fossil fuels.
They also do not create any greenhouse gases when generating or storing electricity, helping businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on climate change. As a bonus, any solar generation that isn’t used is sent back to the electricity grid and ultimately used by other consumers, reducing their environmental impact, too.
Solar PV checklist: What to consider before buying a system
- Confirm that your system can be connected to the grid
- Learn about solar panel types
- Find out why you need a good inverter
- Do you want a battery system one day?
- Work out how much energy you use
- Think about system size
- Seek out a reputable installer
- Double check any quotation
- Get a good warranty
Updated